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BioShock Infinite loops onto Mac this month
The sky city of Columbia opens its doors to Mac owners on August 29, when a BioShock Infinite port will inject itself into Steam, the App Store, and other online portals, priced at $60. In Aspyr Games' announcement, the Mac publisher revealed pre-orders placed through its GameAgent store will get the Columbia's Finest DLC, which came with Premium and Ultimate editions of the game at launch. The inventory-boosting DLC includes 500 Silver Eagles, 5 lockpicks, 6 gear items exclusive to it, and a couple of weapon upgrades. Finally, Aspyr told us it hopes to make the just-released Clash in the Clouds multiplayer DLC available "ready on or very close to" the Mac version's launch. Publisher 2K Games also unveiled the narratively-focused two-part DLC Burial at Sea this week, but that remains undated for all versions.
BioShock Infinite coming to the Mac later this month
BioShock Infinite will be available on Mac as of August 29th, some five months after it was first released on PC and consoles. That may sound like a long time for Mac gamers to wait, but that's much better than the more than two years after the official release date it took for BioShock 2 to arrive on Mac OS X. Ported by Aspyr, the same outfit that brought Borderlands, Civilization and Call of Duty to Mac gamers, BioShock Infinite will be available through the Mac App Store, Steam and Asypr's own GameAgent. The list price is US$59.99, though where you purchase could determine how much bang for the buck you get. Purchasing through Steam will get you Steam Play, meaning you get a copy for both Mac and PC, where as purchasing though GameAgent gets you the Columbia's Finest DLC and a voucher for 20 percent off the list price, which is quite a big incentive. Either way, Aspyr has stated the new Clash in the Clouds DLC will be available on or not long after the launch date, and the recently announced Burial at Sea two-part campaign add-on will follow thereafter. [Via The Verge]
BioShock Infinite sales pass 4 million
Take-Two Interactive chairman and CEO Strauss Zelnick has revealed that BioShock Infinite has sold more than 4 million units since its release last March. This comes hot on the heels of the first-person shooter's new DLC and the announcement of an impending return to more nostalgic, sub-aquatic pastures. "BioShock Infinite is North America's best-selling multiplatform release so far this year, according to NPD," Zelnick said during an investor conference call following the release of Take-Two's financial results for the first quarter of its fiscal 2014. "The title has crossed the 4 million units selling mark, and we expect it to become the top-selling release in the BioShock franchise."
BioShock Infinite returns to Rapture in Burial at Sea
BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea will take players in a bathysphere back to the emerald city of Rapture for a noir-styled adventure. The second and third pieces of downloadable content for Infinite offer a more narrative experience than today's Clash in the Clouds. The first episode places Infinite protagonists Booker and Elizabeth in Rapture, the underwater city Andrew Ryan built so kindly in the original BioShock, around 1958, two years before the fall. Players will experience the city through Booker's eyes in a time before it became the leaky dream under the sea, with new weapons, new "Plasmids/Vigors," tears, Big Daddies and ... some sky-lines, apparently. The second episode will have players taking on the role of Elizabeth. She won't be the bullet-absorbing tank that Booker DeWitt is, as Irrational Studios head Ken Levine explained it'll be a different type of experience. The two packs have been priced at $14.99 apiece (included in the BioShock Infinite Season Pass) with more details and a release date coming soon. %Gallery-194988%
BioShock Infinite: Clash in the Clouds out today
The first piece of BioShock Infinite downloadable content is an arena combat mode called Clash in the Clouds. Available for $5, the DLC will launch around noon today on Steam for PC, with the Xbox 360 and PSN versions being pushed to their respective marketplaces as soon as possible (could be today, could be shortly). At its core Clash in the Clouds is arena mode. Players gain access to four different maps, fighting 15 waves of enemies in each, earning varying amounts of money based on how they fight (headshots give a slight bonus, along with chain kills). Between each wave, players are able to restock. There are also "blue ribbon challenges," which require defeating a wave in a particular way (eg. shotguns only). The cash earned is banked and can be used to open up items in The Columbian Archeological Society, which is the hubworld for the mode. Players can unlock and display concept art, character models, Lutece backstory Voxophones, Kinetoscopes and more. This trophy room is the highlight of the DLC. From my brief experience with the mode yesterday, I was able to break it a couple times. After failing a blue ribbon challenge I decided to "restart checkpoint," but it turns out you can't restart a wave, so you'll be dropped back to the hubworld. After that I couldn't access the world and required a restart. After restarting I bought a vigor, which didn't show up in my menu. Overall, the DLC features four maps, 15 encounters per map and a ton of unlocks for $5. It may not be the BioShock DLC that season-pass holders were expecting out of the gate, but it's good if you're looking for combat challenges in the world of Columbia. Burial at Sea is likely more in (sky)line with what season pass holders are hoping for.
Steam Summer Getaway Sale: Reus, Dishonored, Terraria
The Steam Summer Getaway Sale sallies on unconcerned with the pummeling it's already put on your wallet. Today's fresh crop of discounts include Reus for $5 (which also has Steam Trading Cards), Max Payne 3 for $10, Terraria for $2.50, Killing Floor for $4, Dishonored for close to $10, Dust: An Elysian Tail for $7.50, Castle Crashers for $3.75 and Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion for $10. The Flash sale, which sees a new group of games discounted every eight hours, is currently featuring BioShock Infinite for $30, Mirror's Edge for $6, Oregon Trail: Director's Cut for $1.24 and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 for $3.39. Finally, all of yesterday's sales are also still available.
gdgt's best deals for July 3: RCA 55-inch LED HDTV, Canon EOS 60D
Ready to save some cash on your tech buys? Then you've come to the right place. Our sister site gdgt tracks price drops on thousands of products every day, and twice a week they feature some of the best deals they've found right here. But act fast! Many of these are limited-time offers, and won't last long. Today's hottest deals include a 55-inch LED HDTV and Canon DSLR available at prices worthy of fireworks-like oohs and ahs. Want the latest deals delivered to your inbox? Join gdgt and add the gadgets you're shopping for to your "Want" list. Every time there's a price cut, you'll get an email alert!
BioShock 2 creative director Jordan Thomas leaves Take-Two
Jordan Thomas, creative director at BioShock 2 developer 2K Marin, has left the company. His departure should have no effect on the studio's current project, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, which he moved away from in early 2012, he tells GI.biz. Thomas makes his exit from the company to go indie with an unnamed partner and work on his own projects. He came to the decision after helping Irrational Games finish work on BioShock Infinite. "It cemented for me that while BioShock spoke to me, it'll never be for me what it is for Ken. I've expanded that legacy here and there, but I could never have created it from scratch. I need to build something that is, to me, what BioShock is to Ken. No matter how long it takes, I have to start now." Thomas already has a game in mind, of course: He wants to take some of the ideals found in Thief and BioShock and apply them "with a radically different focus." If it's well-received, Thomas says "we might expand the vision and explore further dimensions of the same theme with more content producers. But we'd love to keep it as lean as possible for now, in the hopes that we're not writing checks our asses can't cash. Indie ambition is its greatest strength and its greatest weakness."
Irrational to unveil BioShock Infinite DLC in late July
Information on upcoming BioShock Infinite DLC is expected to arrive in late July, Irrational Games tells Joystiq. It's unconfirmed if the as-yet-unannounced DLC is part of the BioShock Infinite's season pass, which grants guaranteed access to three DLC packs for the game. The game's "Columbia's Finest" DLC was recently made available as a separate download on Steam.
BioShock Infinite Premium DLC now available separately on Steam
Steam has released the BioShock Infinite "Columbia's Finest" DLC as a separate download, available now for $4.99. This DLC was initially included with the Premium and Ultimate editions of the game at launch, and adds 500 Silver Eagles and 5 lockpicks to your stash, along with six exclusive gear items. You'll also get two weapon upgrades: Comstock's China Boom Shotgun, and Comstock's Eagle Eye Sniper Rifle. This content is not part of the season pass that Irrational Games announced back in February, which promises access to three separate pieces of downloadable content in the future.
GameFly summer PC sale includes super-cheap BioShock Infinite, Mass Effect Trilogy, Walking Dead
GameFly has a pretty legit sale going on right now for PC games on Steam and Origin -- deals that, when coupled with this 20-percent off coupon, can lead to some decidedly redonk savings. BioShock Infinite, for instance, can be yours for $28 after using the coupon code. Meanwhile, The Walking Dead, Hitman: Absolution, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Torchlight 2 and Sleeping Dogs are all available for less than $10, and that's before the coupon. Borderlands 2, Mass Effect Trilogy, XCOM: Enemy Unknown and a whole mess of others are in there as well at varyingly steep discounts. This may be the excuse you've been waiting for to finally justify Euro Truck Simulator 2.
Get $20 to $25 off BioShock Infinite on Amazon today
Today's Gold Box deal of the day on Amazon is BioShock Infinite. Downloadable PC versions of the game are $25 off ($35), whereas boxed copies of the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 versions are $20 off ($40) for today only. Meanwhile, $35 Steam codes through Groupon for the game appear to still be available until the end of the day. What we're trying to say is, today might be a good day to buy a new game. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
Groupon for $25 off BioShock Infinite on Steam
Unlike other Groupons for BOGO grow-your-own nagchampa kits and 15 percent off the first 30 minutes of your dog's Le Cordon Bleu certification lessons, this Groupon to get the PC version of BioShock Infinite for $35 is actually worth spending money on.
April NPD: Injustice: Gods Among Us reigns supreme
Another hot, fresh loaf of financial data has been pulled out of The NPD Group's analytical oven, and its buttery goodness contains sales information for the four week period between April 4 and May 7, 2013. During that time, the physical retail sector of the games industry was down 25 percent when compared with its performance over the same four weeks in 2012, pulling in a grand total of $495.2 million. It's worth noting, however, that this figure does not include the sale of PC games. Hardware sales brought in $109.5 million, a 42 percent decrease from the $187.8 million seen last year, with the Xbox 360 once again enjoying the highest sales with 130,000 units moved. Meanwhile, the brief reprieve from year-over-year decline seen by the Accessories segment last month was short lived, as in April it by dropped 19 percent to a total of $131.4 million. Software sales (including PC games) topped out at $267.8 million, with NetherRealm Studios' Injustice: Gods Among Us taking top honors as the best-selling game for the period, the first time a fighting game has finished in first since 2011's Mortal Kombat. Dead Island: Riptide and BioShock Infinite rounded out the podium in spots two and three respectively – meanwhile MMO/Syfy series Defiance debuted in fifth. As always, scope the full list after the break.
Take-Two year-on-year revenue up, digital sales on the rise
Take-Two announced its financial results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013, revealing that the company took in $1.214 billion in sales last year, up from $825.8 million for the fiscal year 2012. Take-Two notes that BioShock Infinite met with "significantly" higher sales than any previous BioShock release, shipping over 3.7 million units to date. The company reports a net loss of $31.2 million over the past fiscal year, but projects between $1.75 to $1.85 billion in revenue for the current fiscal year (ending in March, 2014), spurred by upcoming releases like Grand Theft Auto V and WWE 2K14. The report notes year-over-year improvements in both revenue and net losses, bolstered by big sellers like Borderlands 2, NBA 2K13, and XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Catalog sales for older releases like Grand Theft Auto IV and Red Dead Redemption also saw strong performances, as Take Two noted a 192 percent year-over-year rise in revenue from digitally delivered software.
BioShock Infinite air-mails 3.7 million units
BioShock Infinite has shipped over 3.7 million units, according to Take-Two interactive's year-end financials released today. The company noted the game experienced "significantly" higher first-month sales than any other BioShock release. The company also mentioned it has seen solid demand for the BioShock Infinite Season Pass, but did not share any numbers. The Season Pass will include the game's three coming DLC packs.
BioShock Infinite Songbird plushies now up for pre-order
Is your tower loft/prison missing that certain something? Irrational Games hopes a Songbird plushie, now available for pre-order through the BioShock Infinite developer's web store, will fill that need. The plush Songbird is sits seven inches tall, has a wingspan of 14 inches and is made of metal, wire and polyester. Each Songbird costs $55 and will take flight from Irrational's warehouse and ship out to customers in September. The Songbird is the bodyguard of Elizabeth, the coin-flinging counterpart to game protagonist Booker DeWitt. If you're looking for other ways to express your love of BioShock Infinite, you could also print out some different cover art, get a new ringtone or head down to your local buffet.
BioShock Infin-Eat: Watch Booker devour all
Some players find the violence in BioShock Infinite disturbing and at odds with the story. We think there's a far more jarring element, however, specifically that Booker eats everything in sight. We're not sure what message Ken Levine an co. were trying to convey, but it isn't pretty.
Analyst: BioShock Infinite sold 878K in US during March
Cowen & Company analyst Doug Creutz estimates that BioShock Infinite moved 878,000 copies in the US last month. This figure comes from an analyst note sent out to investors as reported by GameSpot; we've contacted the NPD to confirm firsthand.BioShock Infinite was the top-selling game in the US for March, besting Tomb Raider and Gears of War: Judgment for top honors. Compared to March 2012, last month's physical retail game sales were ten percent weaker, while hardware pulled in 32 percent less revenue.
BioShock Infinite hides Shakespeare quotes in Possession Vigor
How to transform a Shakespeare soliloquy from a gorgeous ballad of love and loss into the chilling stuff of nightmares: Whisper it Play it backwardBioShock Infinite features hidden dialogue in its Possession Vigor, both in the scene where players first encounter the stuff, and when it's used to possess enemies. It's a line from Romeo and Juliet, played backward and whispered: "Come, gentle night, come, loving, black-brow'd [night] / Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die / Take him and cut him out in little stars."
